Dr. Mike Walden, North Carolina Cooperative Extension economist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University, responds:

"Well, we're talking about what's called the financial panic of 1907. It was sparked by some problems in mining, mining investments that went bad and sparked a run on the banks. A run on the banks simply means that people get scared that they are going to lose their money in the banks so they all go to the bank and draw out their money. And of course, no bank keeps 100 percent of their deposits, most of that money is loaned out. So that can create a problem. And there was such a problem that occurred in 1907. And it almost led to a decline and collapse of the entire financial system. In fact, the stock market reacted very negatively, going down about 50 percent. And it really took the efforts of one rich businessman, J.P. Morgan, to organize a rescue of the banks and bring back banker confidence. Now, the implication of where we are today is that that financial panic of 1907 brought people to the realization that they needed some kind of public backstop, some kind of institution that would come to the rescue of banks, restore confidence so the system wouldn't collapse. They couldn't rely on rich people to do it, and it really led to the establishment of the Federal Reserve System in 1913. And of course, that Federal Reserve System again came to the rescue of banks in 2008."